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NASA Augments SPACEHAB, Inc. Shuttle Mission Contract Addition of SPACEHAB’s Integrated Cargo
Carrier on May 1999 Vienna, VA, December 8, 1998 — A recent contract modification negotiated between NASA and SPACEHAB, Inc. (Nasdaq: SPAB) in connection with a May 1999 Space Shuttle flight will generate more than $2.3 million in additional revenue for the Vienna, Va.-based commercial space services provider. Under the modification, SPACEHAB will provide companion unpressurized cargo services to NASA aboard the first re-supply flight to the International Space Station, a mission designated STS-96. The Company already is slated to carry 12,000 pounds of pressurized crew supplies such as food, crew clothing and other vital supplies inside the SPACEHAB Logistics Double Module on that flight. The contract addition provides for the first use of SPACEHAB’s newest cargo-carrying asset, the Integrated Cargo Carrier (ICC), an externally mounted pallet and associated flight support equipment, that enable the Space Shuttles to transport thousands of pounds of unpressurized cargo. On STS-96, SPACEHAB’s ICC will be used to carry a 650-pound Russian-built crane called STRELA and certain tools to be used in construction of the space station. The ICC comprises a flat-bed pallet that is placed above the tunnel leading to SPACEHAB’s Logistics Module and bolted to a U-shaped keel yoke assembly strung under the tunnel. Before SPACEHAB engineers invented the innovative assembly, much of the volume above and around the tunnel remained unused. "By taking advantage of previously under-utilized space in the Shuttle cargo bay, the ICC’s unique design increases by 3,000 pounds the amount of cargo NASA and its partners can carry to the evolving station," SPACEHAB President David A. Rossi said. The STS-96 contract augmentation comes just days after NASA exercised its option for another mission, STS-101, the second re-supply flight to the nascent station, currently scheduled for September 1999. That option, part of the Company’s Research and Logistics Mission Support contract with NASA, is estimated to generate about $18 million or more in new revenues for SPACEHAB, the leading commercial services company supporting both manned and unmanned space missions. SPACEHAB, Inc., with its Johnson Engineering and Astrotech subsidiaries, is the world’s leading provider of commercial payload processing services for manned and unmanned payloads. SPACEHAB is the first company to commercially develop, own and operate habitable modules that provide laboratory facilities and logistics re-supply aboard NASA’s Space Shuttles. The Company also supports NASA astronaut training at Johnson Space Center, Houston. For Immediate Release |